At his inauguration, Mayor Daniel Lurie promised to dedicate his time in office to tackling the city’s drug use and mental health crisis, even in the face of the city’s looming budget deficit.
In practice, cuts to programs that help tackle that crisis are coming anyway. Among them: City College’s Community Mental Health Certificate Program, a one of a kind 18-month program, training frontline mental health workers to use their lived experience for peer counseling with a chance to be licensed by the state.
The city’s Department of Public Health recently announced that its funding will end after its current five-year $2.15-million contract comes to an end. If it can’t find funding elsewhere, its last class will graduate in June 2027…